


Healing

by otapocalypse



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Coffee, Corrupted Gems, Corruption, Dancing, Depression, F/F, Fluff, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, Meep Morps, Mental Health Issues, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Roommates, Steven is a cinnamon roll
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 13:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8103916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otapocalypse/pseuds/otapocalypse
Summary: Steven thinks he may be able to heal Jasper's corruption and eventually turn her around for the better. Peridot is trying to help her roommate cope with the aftermath of all the horrible things she's gone through. Things aren't going to be easy- but then again, when were they ever?Starts off after the ending of Earthlings.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually a really fun chapter to write and a great opening feel for how the story is going to be. It took a lot of time and a bit of struggling but I was finally able to start off this series in a satisfactory way, and I'm really excited to take it on as a project.
> 
> As always, any kudos and reviews are deeply appreciated.
> 
> With that said, hope you enjoy!

It was dark. It was grey. It was painful.

Fear, anger, memories, it all eluded her, and her mind became preoccupied with the swirling torment of racing thoughts and agony. She couldn’t even remember her name. Did she have one? Where was she? How did this happen?

Slowly, the confusion faded. Slowly, her mind slowed, and she felt like she was floating, like she should just close her eyes and go to sleep. But she couldn’t. She could only sit there, huddled in a tight knot around herself- yes, she though she could feel her limbs now- and wait, and listen. 

To nothing.

She tried to stir, but the action brought a bright flare of pain racing up both her sides, and she immediately whimpered and curled back up, thoroughly convinced that moving at all was a bad idea. She resorted to searching her own mind for anything other than what was here, now.

Fuzzy memories began surfacing, of desperation and anger, of- others. Who were they? She let out a displeased grumble at another spike of the pain, this time in her head, but she pressed grimly on, trying to force the memories to come to fruition.

Someone- like her. Exactly like her. But weaker. There’d been fighting, and then there’d been fusion- she grit her fangs, and immediately regretted it when it felt as though she’d driven a nail through her own skull. That fusion- another new person, another trick to bring her to her doom- she wouldn’t let it happen.

And she had- fused with one of those monsters. She was sick. She was repulsed by herself. Again she thought how she deserved it, through muddled gray feelings of disappointment and rage. And then- 

That green one, the traitor, had somehow driven something horribly sharp right through her chest, and she’d gone…

She suddenly panicked, thrashing in the bubble despite the horrible shooting pain that went through her entire form. Those- those enemies had not only corrupted and poofed her, they’d now trapped her in a bubble- and they’d done it wrong. 

Wasn’t she supposed to be _unconscious?_

She let out a roar of pain, muscles giving out as her mind went hazy. She couldn’t take this feeling anymore. She was sure no one deserved to feel this way. If she could just remember… if she could just make this fog go away…

_Steven._

_Jasper._

* * *

Peridot blinked awake. She was sprawled out on the couch, though she could have sworn she’d fallen asleep on the roof with Lapis the night before. Stirring and sitting up, she noticed her roommate under a pile of blankets sprawled next to her, and couldn’t help a fond grin.

If previous experience had any say in this, Lapis wouldn’t be up for another few hours. She glanced out over the hills, to where the sun was just starting to peek above the horizon. Okay, so, several hours. 

Sure, Gems didn’t need sleep, but Lapis regardless seemed to always be tired. Eventually growing bored and lonely at night, Peridot had decided to give it a go, and now it had become an unbreakable habit for the both of them.

Taking no fear in the thought of waking the ocean gem- an earthquake wouldn’t even wake her up this early- she scrambled over the arm of the couch and dropped to the ground below, stumbling a bit as she landed. 

She knew Lapis wouldn’t roll out of bed till around noon on a good day, and then she’d have some of the humans’ coffee- black, no cream or sugar at all. Peridot didn’t understand how she did it. Eating was strange enough; it became downright repulsive when you consumed things that didn’t even taste good.

Oh well, to each their own, she thought, and turned to survey one of her morps that she had just started a few days ago. The morps were important, and not just because she thought so. Since Lapis had gotten here, she’d been sad and angry and empty all at the same time. She’d done nothing but sit around all day.

It’d worried Peridot. She’d tried the Camp Pining Hearts dvds, but one could only marathon a show so many times, especially when the marathon included that trash season 5. And it was just a distraction anyway. It rarely actually helped her roommate, and so she’d tried to find her a new purpose, a way to not feel so… terrible.

That’s when Lapis had started talking to her. She’d flown up to the roof almost every night to stare at the stars. Peridot knew she was looking for Homeworld’s galaxy. One night, the green gem had gotten up the courage to follow, and then approach her roommate, who didn’t protest when she sat next to her.

“Do you ever… Miss it?” She’d said.

“All the time.” Peridot answered, without hesitation.

The noble had looked at her then, like she was seeing her for the first time. 

And that had been the start of their nightly conversations. Lapis had opened up, little by little, revealing more and more each night, as Peridot tried not to react badly to all the horrors she had gone through. No wonder things were so bad.

She began trying harder, digging deeper into all the junk scattered around the barn. But Lapis was no technician, and though she was kind enough each time Peri concocted some new contraption out of the twisted metal and discarded bits, it was clear she was not interested.

And then, Peridot had introduced her to music. Lapis had reacted with such awe and admiration that the technician had to blush and explain that it was not actually her idea, and that Steven was the one who had shown her in the first place. 

Of course, he had also told her that music went way back, that humans had been creating music since the beginning of Earth itself, but she saw no harm in letting Lapis believe Steven was the one who had invented music.

It had evolved from there, and Lapis began mimicking Peridot’s assembly of the scraps in the barn, but instead of giving these masses of material a practical function, she assigned meaning to them instead. Peridot was quick to catch on. 

Back in the present, she continued rearranging her items throughout the morning, growing increasingly frustrated, when the sound of a few gentle wingbeats behind her made her turn. It was, of course, Lapis, who looked like a blue zombie stumbling towards her.

“Morning, Lapis!” She said cheerfully, former frustrations forgotten. Lapis mumbled something resembling the sleepy grumbles of a deep sea monster and trudged past, heading in a beeline for the coffee machine, built by none other than the great and lovable Peridot, of course.

She didn’t take the silence personally, at least not anymore. 

“What do you feel like doing today, hm?” She continued, still studying her morp rather than approaching Lapis before she had her coffee. “Maybe another collaborative piece? I think we really impressed our guests with that one.”

“Do we plan on having guests again?” She asked. Though groggy, she didn’t sound as grumpy as she normally did.

“Steven did mention he had something important to tell us.” She said. “He told me to expect him here in the next few days, and to tell you not to try to go pick him up and fly him here.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure why he included that instruction.”

Lapis’ light giggle was followed by the sound of her sipping her coffee. “Well, maybe he knows me a little better.” She teased.

“Gasp!” Peridot whirled around dramatically, a hand on her heart. “Are you saying _Steven,_ who has been your companion _longer than I have,_ could _possibly_ understand your strange ways more than I do? Me, your roommate of _two whole Earth months!?_ ”

Lapis snickered harder at that, and Peridot grinned back. This really wasn’t such a bad way to live.

Steven, true to his word, showed up around mid-afternoon. In the midst of clanging metal and the rustle of Lapis carrying in pile after pile of fallen leaves, Peridot heard his voice calling out a greeting and immediately abandoned her work to go see him, Lapis by her side.

“You two look like you’re having fun,” he said, grinning widely. “Happy first day of fall!”

“Thank you, Ste-“

“What was the news you wanted to share with us?!” Peridot exclaimed, jumping forward and grabbing his shoulders. His smile faded a bit.

“Well, um… It’s… Jasper,” he said, looking at Lapis with concern. They both looked at him in surprise.

“I… think I found a way to heal her.”

* * *

That night, they both sat on the couch together as usual, not really paying any attention to season 4 of Camp Pining Hearts on the tv. It’d been awkwardly silent since Steven had left. Lapis had stayed around to hear what he had to say, but hadn’t yet offered any of her thoughts.

Apparently, the now-corrupted Jasper had somehow reformed and broken out of her bubble, and had to be re-poofed and re-bubbled. Peridot hoped Amethyst wasn’t taking it as a sign of inadequacy. 

Steven hadn’t given many details, not wanting to upset Lapis, but he had told of an experience he described as “mind reading”- couldn’t the fused one do something similar?- and that he thought he could come up with a cure for the Gems’ corruption.

He’d also said that he first wanted to try it out on Jasper, but only with everyone’s full agreement. Apparently he had somehow convinced the others that this would be a good idea. Or he had lied and really had only asked Peridot and Lapis.

That wasn’t the problem though. The problem now was that her roommate was clearly very torn up and conflicted over this very important decision, and who better than Peridot to help take her mind off of it?

Getting up, she once again clumsily clambered over the couch and dropped to the ground below, smirking at how clever she was. Unsurprisingly, Lapis looked down with a mildly interested expression.

“What are you doing?”

“I think we deserve something a little less… heavy.” She said, using her metal powers to pick up the triangle and strike a high note. She held her hand out, smiling at Lapis hopefully. 

The ocean gem gave a little sigh but then smiled back, and spread her wings, floating gently down to the barn floor and taking Peridot’s hand. They’d danced like this before, though not too often, and Peri felt she was much less graceful than her dance partner, but for once she didn’t care.

Lapis led, pulling Peridot close and grasping her hand in her own, starting with a simple four-step to warm them both up. It’s not that they were bad at dancing, quite the contrary. But Lapis was rusty and had bad memories attached to this activity, and Peridot had only ever known tinkering and fixing things.

Their speed picked up, and Lapis gave an experimental twirl, the corners of her lips tugging upwards as she made it flawlessly, Peridot lightly guiding her with her own hands and feeling her own grin of excitement come back.

These were the best nights, in her opinion. She felt light, and happy, and her worries about Lapis, her fears for Steven and her mixed-up feelings towards Homeworld faded away, and it was just her and Lapis, dancing in the moonlight.

She sucked in a surprised breath when Lapis dipped her, then froze, those blue eyes closed and her arm out in perfect form. Like always. A silver glow traced the outline of her messy hair, making it look as if she had a halo.

Like an angel.

A fallen angel, maybe.

Peridot’s stunned gaze was intercepted by Lapis’ as the ocean gem opened her eyes. She looked.. disappointed? Uh oh.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Peridot asked meekly, taking a second to find her voice. 

“We… we didn’t fuse.”

Peridot felt her heart stop, and she straightened up quickly.

_“What!?”_

Lapis’ expression became strained. “Everyone around us is always talking about how fusion is so great, and so useful, so powerful. It’s like… it’s like I did it wrong, like it was my fault my experience wasn’t the same… I… I just feel like I have to make fusion something that feels good to me, and…”

Her face fell. “And nothing happened.”

Peridot stepped closer, laying a gentle hand on her arm. “Lapis.. nothing _needs_ to happen.”

“All this pressure you feel about fusing… it’s completely normal, okay? But… not liking fusion is okay too. The fusion you were in was wrong, it was horrible…”

Lapis looked away, rubbing her arm.

“…But it wasn’t your fault. Nothing you did justified your suffering. And nothing anyone else says or does should make you feel like you need to enjoy fusion, that’s… that’s _crazy,_ Lapis! Fusion isn’t the end-all!”

The gem’s blue eyes widened, glistening with tears Peridot never expected to see. But her fears abated as Lapis lurched forward and wrapped her in a hug.

“…Thank you, Peridot.”


End file.
